Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson (Þskúm)

Þorleifr (Þskúm), together with the sole stanza attributed to him, features in the Jvs and Fsk accounts of the battle of Hjǫrungavágr (Liavågen, c. 985), in which he fell; see Eskál Lv 3, Bjbp Jóms 34/5 and Context to Jóms 34. He is said in Jvs (1879, 73) to have been the son of Þorkell inn auðgi ‘the Wealthy’ of Mýrar in Dýrafjörður, north-west Iceland, and skúma appears as his nickname, whereas Fsk (ÍF 29, 131) refers to Skúmr as his given name, and regards Þórðr ǫrvhǫnd ‘Left-handed’ (also mentioned in Jvs) as his brother. The meaning of the nickname skúma is uncertain. Finnur Jónsson (1907, 200) and Lind (1920-1, 335) take it to mean ‘squinting’, though the root skúm- also has associations with darkness, as in skúmi m. ‘dusk’ and skúma-skot n. ‘dusk, a dark nook’ (CVC: skúmi; LP: skúmr), and Finnur Jónsson (LP) suggests skummelt udseende person ‘gloomy-looking person’ for skúmr m. in Hundk Lv 3/7VIII.